The film is based on the same-named novel by Branko Copic, whose plot is set during the Second World War. Residents of Serbian populated village high in the Bosnian mountains found themselves in the middle of two ideologies in world War II Yugoslavia - Chetniks (monarchist) and Partisans (communist). Representatives of these two ideologies are The Spaniard (Mustafa Nadarevic), a Yugoslav volunteer and veteran from the Spanish civil war, partisan commissar. And the former royal officer Radekic (Branislav Lecic). The Spaniard is an indoctrinated fanatic, the bearer of ideas which he wants to change the world with without considering the sacrifices, and the Radekic is a real connoisseur of the situation, a man born in the region who tries to save the people, even at the cost of his own ideals. The Spaniard sees in Radekic the causes of the bitter resistance to his ideology form the peasants, and the basic plot is created by the conflict between the two of them.
—Lepi Cane. Prijatno.